The route Rashi and Blip had planned to the possible site went partly into the cave system where Taiah had originally been found, to give the best chances of her remembering landmarks. It quickly became apparent that this facility was so hidden because the entrance was under the water somewhere. This was why Taiah had been forced to swim during her escape. They were looking for either some kind of submersible module, or for a cave that ran either under or adjacent to the ocean.

After wading their way through several increasingly flooded tunnels they finally reached the point where they would need to swim. Taiah was a surprisingly strong swimmer. Rashi swam better above the water than under it but was just strong in general, so she was fine. Blip could hold her breath longer than the others but was top heavy with very little strength, so she hung on to Rashi's tail for any swims longer than a few body lengths.

Soon the tunnels began looking less natural and more traveled. They were still switching between sloshing through ankle-deep, dingy water, to wading through very slightly less dingy water, to swimming through water that was almost not too dodgy. It was clear that some were meant to be swum through but several were not meant to have this much water. They even spotted a few useless pumps, broken and lifeless, where once the passageway was kept clear. Blip secretly worried that Taiah's friends, were they still here, may well have been flooded out and drowned, but she dare not voice this fear. Rashi had thought of this possibility but hoped that whatever the children were wanted for, they were valuable enough to take along if this place was as abandoned as it seemed.

Because lifeless was the best way to describe the place. There were countless signs that others had been there, but none that anyone currently was. No sounds. No lights. Not even any trash that looked recent. Rashi, Taiah, and Blip remained silent just the same, but frequently signaled or made eye contact, trying to keep themselves grounded in this eerie, tense environment. There were worrying things scrawled on the walls, and a few suspicious stains. The smell in the air was somewhere between a busy fishing dock and a sewer. It was clear that whatever had been happening, the ocean was slowly reclaiming this hideaway. The floors bore marks of heavy equipment being hauled, but there didn't seem to be any sign of the robots Taiah had spoken of, that patrolled and set off alarms or reached out with grabbers should you be caught in the wrong area.

After what felt like way too long, the trio emerged from yet another tunnel, soaked to the skin, feeling soggy, chilled, smelly, and discouraged, to find that at last they had arrived at something other than a dingy waterlogged hall. The much larger hall before them opened into a series of rooms. In cautious silence, though there had still been not a sound the while they were slogging through the tunnels, they crept toward each in turn, peeking in to check for signs of life before exploring the room for clues. Blip went first because she was smaller than Rashi and could use her antennae to sense around corners for electrical pulses. When none were detected, she would look, and so long as there seemed to be no one occupying the room, she'd signal to Rashi and Taiah who would creep forward and join her.

The one thing that was obvious was that something had happened very suddenly and anybody occupying the rooms had left in an incredible hurry. Rashi and Blip began to think perhaps the whole site was abandoned. If so, their best hope of finding Taiah's fellow captives was to see if any communications remained that would hint at where they'd fled to.

This hall was at a slight incline, with each successive room being less flooded. The final room at the end of the hall was very nearly dry, so if anybody was still here, this was likely where they'd be. Blip crept much more quietly to the doorway, which like all the others was wide open as though it had been hastily exited. With all this water though, it was possible the rollers were rusted shut, so it didn't necessarily mean anything. Slowly, Blip crept her antennae along the wall until she was close enough to sense impulses in the room. She felt a crackle. Movement! Something alive was in the room. She raised her arm briefly to signal to Rashi and Taiah and then dropped onto her belly, creeping forward to give her very large eyes the best chance to quickly adapt to any light change and get an idea of who, what, and where before they retreated.

The very last thing she was expecting was a best case scenario. It just wasn't the kind of situation that lent itself to optimism. So her shock was enormous to see a room that was largely empty, with three exceptions. The first was a panel that obviously controlled the other two things- a watcher robot equipped with grabber arms, and a force field door seal-- behind which was a number of thin, lethargic looking children! Whatever had happened, it was SO sudden, it seemed that they had given up on their captives, leaving them there to whatever fate would bring as they themselves fled.

It was so surprising, Blip forgot herself. Jumping to her feet, she shouted "WE FOUND THEM" which startled not only Rashi and Taiah but also each and every one of the children- and the grabber bot. At speed it revved to life and snatched the tiny Vicham, lifting her into the air and holding her firmly.

Rashi was WIRED. All this tension and worry had popped like a bubble at Blip's shout, and she was catapulted into action. There was no way she was putting up with a grabber bot. Thought it was grabbing anybody? Not on her watch. Almost in a single motion she leapt forward and snatched the pry bar that she'd casually had over her shoulder with both hands, swinging it directly onto the attachment point of the arm that held Blip. The connection points were strong against pulling but not exactly built for this sort of assault. The arm tore free from its casing and fell to the floor. Rashi knew perfectly well that the maintenance panel on such a robot is on the bottom, but she also knew there was another route to the mainframe that was perfectly viable if you didn't care about preserving the machine, which she certainly did not. Even as the bot began to snag her legs and neck, she jammed the pry bar directly into the opening left by the fallen arm, making quick work of the innards of the bot, which let her go before it had even finished tightening.

Blip, upon being dropped, had scrambled immediately into the room to head for the wall panel. She had first thought to reassure the children, but Taiah was already at the barrier having a tearful reunion with the leaping, screaming, crying residents of the cage. Clearly they knew salvation was at hand, so the thing to do would be to hack the wall panel and drop the force field. As the sounds of metal on metal and angry grunts signaled Rashi pounding the robot to bits behind her, she found her way into the surprisingly low-security systems behind the panel. Perhaps they figured nobody would ever find this place. At any rate it was less than a minute before the buttons were pressed, the barrier was dispelled, and what looked like a pile of kids fell into the room and swarmed Taiah.

Choruses of "you're alive!" and "we thought you were dead!" and "I can't believe it!" were shouted all round as the children laughed and yelled, jumping up and down and hugging each other, Taiah, even Rashi, a bit surprising given she was a strange adult, but, she had just been seen to beat the grabber bot to smithereens with a pry bar. Blip got curious glances but, as was common for her, it seemed the children hadn't seen a Vicham before and weren't completely sure what to make of her. She wasn't bothered by this, as it left her hands free to pull out her scanner and check the children for injuries and disease. They were clearly hungry, dehydrated, tired, and stressed, but all things considered they were in health enough for the plan concocted for the trip back. This involved a cart that they'd concealed in one of the caves and, if they couldn't make it there, a tarp to hault them on to that point. The biggest challenge was going to be the places they needed to swim through before they got out to the point the tarp would be usable, but through some miracle most of the children seemed to be adapted well for the water. Really, all but one, who looked like a Tarkee but had a pair of small wings. This child was holding tight to Taiah, who was clearly particularly ecstatic to see her.

"FOGGY!" she yelled. "Mama, it's Foggy! It's her that they took away and I thought maybe she was dead, but she isn't, and she's here!"

This mission was full of miracles. Blip felt it was entirely possible they'd just used up their good luck resources for their entire lives- but if so, it was worth it to have found and rescued Taiah's friends without having to content with unknown criminals.

Where the trip there had been silent and tense, the trip back was full of noise and life. The children had endless questions and exclamations. The wonder of their friend, presumed dead, arriving with help, and the fact that now they would be free instead of the terrible fate they'd sadly resigned themselves to, was all consuming, overwhelming, giddy, miraculous! They peppered the adults with questions they could barely even listen to the answers for before some other voice rose to say or ask something new. They kept touching each other, and Taiah, and even Rashi and Blip, as though to keep themselves reassured that these things were all real and it wasn't just some incredible fever dream.

Naturally, Blip immediately doled out hard candies, urging the children to suck them slowly to restore moisture to their mouths and more importantly, so as not to choke on them. Her incessant mother hen instinct seemed to have the same effect on these children as it had on Taiah, and now they all were calling her Mama, as Taiah did. With the children so hungry and thirsty, they went through their water rations and the entire bag of sweeties before they got very far. There were more supplies hidden with the cart of course, so it wasn't too concerning, but the problem of the areas that needed swimming through reared its head before very long. These children were not as fit and strong as their rescuers, of course. Would they make the swim all right?

Thankfully, their natural adaptations really saw them through. It was a slower journey out of the ocean than into it, but with Fog riding on Rashi's back where necessary they made it to their hideout cave by nightfall. Rashi broke out the soap they'd brought and everyone very gratefully washed themselves of the stench of the flooded tunnels and their burden of trash and goodness knows what else. With a portable ocean-to-drinking distiller, the children could drink their fill, and between the rest of the rations and what they managed to forage, everyone's belly was very full as little captives slept the first real sleep they had in memory, and Rashi took first watch.

The night passed without event and the adults let their charges sleep until they woke, which turned out to be around midday. The trek the rest of the way home was very celebratory, nearly a parade, and by the time the colony headquarters were in sight, everyone was in high spirits. Temar had been keeping watch and ran out to greet them and usher them all home, but not before signaling to his brothers, such that when they all arrived, everyone was there to greet them, and a simple hot meal had been prepared.

All told, there were six of them. An aquatic tsabhua without a name, two reef belemoid who similarly had no names, and the three Tarkee- an aerial named Fog, a draconic named Burn (he had named himself), and an aquatic named Finnian (he couldn't really remember where his name came from). Clearly accustomed to being ordered about, they were surprisingly timid and well behaved for children their age in spite of their initial exuberance. Everyone was simply grateful to have gotten them safely out of that situation and into a happy beginning of something new.

Total Wordcount: 2169
1 to 200
The route Rashi and Blip had planned to the possible site went partly into the cave system where Taiah had originally been found, to give the best chances of her remembering landmarks. It quickly became apparent that this facility was so hidden because the entrance was under the water somewhere. This was why Taiah had been forced to swim during her escape. They were looking for either some kind of submersible module, or for a cave that ran either under or adjacent to the ocean. After wading their way through several increasingly flooded tunnels they finally reached the point where they would need to swim. Taiah was a surprisingly strong swimmer. Rashi swam better above the water than under it but was just strong in general, so she was fine. Blip could hold her breath longer than the others but was top heavy with very little strength, so she hung on to Rashi's tail for any swims longer than a few body lengths. ((Soon the tunnels began looking less natural and more traveled. They were still switching between sloshing through ankle-deep, dingy water, to wading through very slightly less dingy water, to swimming through water that was almost not too
Mention Counter
Taiah: 3 mentions
Rashi: 3 mentions

201 to 400
dodgy. It was clear that some were meant to be swum through but several were not meant to have this much water. They even spotted a few useless pumps, broken and lifeless, where once the passageway was kept clear.)) Blip secretly worried that Taiah's friends, were they still here, may well have been flooded out and drowned, but she dare not voice this fear. Rashi had thought of this possibility but hoped that whatever the children were wanted for, they were valuable enough to take along if this place was as abandoned as it seemed. Because lifeless was the best way to describe the place. There were countless signs that others had been there, but none that anyone currently was. No sounds. No lights. Not even any trash that looked recent. Rashi, Taiah, and Blip remained silent just the same, but frequently signaled or made eye contact, trying to keep themselves grounded in this eerie, tense environment. There were worrying things scrawled on the walls, and a few suspicious stains. The smell in the air was somewhere between a busy fishing dock and a sewer. It was clear that whatever had been happening, the ocean was slowly reclaiming this hideaway.
Mention Counter
Taiah: 2 mentions
Rashi: 2 mentions

401 to 600
The floors bore marks of heavy equipment being hauled, but there didn't seem to be any sign of the robots Taiah had spoken of, that patrolled and set off alarms or reached out with grabbers should you be caught in the wrong area. After what felt like way too long, the trio emerged from yet another tunnel, soaked to the skin, feeling soggy, chilled, smelly, and discouraged, to find that at last they had arrived at something other than a dingy waterlogged hall. The much larger hall before them opened into a series of rooms. In cautious silence, though there had still been not a sound the while they were slogging through the tunnels, they crept toward each in turn, peeking in to check for signs of life before exploring the room for clues. Blip went first because she was smaller than Rashi and could use her antennae to sense around corners for electrical pulses. When none were detected, she would look, and so long as there seemed to be no one occupying the room, she'd signal to Rashi and Taiah who would creep forward and join her. The one thing that was obvious was that something had happened very
Mention Counter
Taiah: 2 mentions
Rashi: 2 mentions

601 to 800
suddenly and anybody occupying the rooms had left in an incredible hurry. Rashi and Blip began to think perhaps the whole site was abandoned. If so, their best hope of finding Taiah's fellow captives was to see if any communications remained that would hint at where they'd fled to. This hall was at a slight incline, with each successive room being less flooded. The final room at the end of the hall was very nearly dry, so if anybody was still here, this was likely where they'd be. Blip crept much more quietly to the doorway, which like all the others was wide open as though it had been hastily exited. With all this water though, it was possible the rollers were rusted shut, so it didn't necessarily mean anything. Slowly, Blip crept her antennae along the wall until she was close enough to sense impulses in the room. She felt a crackle. Movement! Something alive was in the room. She raised her arm briefly to signal to Rashi and Taiah and then dropped onto her belly, creeping forward to give her very large eyes the best chance to quickly adapt to any light change and get an idea of
Mention Counter
Taiah: 2 mentions
Rashi: 2 mentions

801 to 1000
who, what, and where before they retreated. The very last thing she was expecting was a best case scenario. It just wasn't the kind of situation that lent itself to optimism. So her shock was enormous to see a room that was largely empty, with three exceptions. The first was a panel that obviously controlled the other two things- a watcher robot equipped with grabber arms, and a force field door seal behind which was a number of thin, lethargic looking children! Whatever had happened, it was SO sudden, it seemed that they had given up on their captives, leaving them there to whatever fate would bring as they themselves fled. It was so surprising, Blip forgot herself. Jumping to her feet, she shouted "WE FOUND THEM" which startled not only Rashi and Taiah but also each and every one of the children- and the grabber bot. At speed it revved to life and snatched the tiny Vicham, lifting her into the air and holding her firmly. Rashi was WIRED. All this tension and worry had popped like a bubble at Blip's shout, and she was catapulted into action. There was no way she was putting up with a grabber
Mention Counter
Taiah: 1 mentions
Rashi: 2 mentions

1001 to 1200
bot. Thought it was grabbing anybody? Not on her watch. Almost in a single motion she leapt forward and snatched the pry bar that she'd casually had over her shoulder with both hands, swinging it directly onto the attachment point of the arm that held Blip. The connection points were strong against pulling but not exactly built for this sort of assault. The arm tore free from its casing and fell to the floor. Rashi knew perfectly well that the maintenance panel on such a robot is on the bottom, but she also knew there was another route to the mainframe that was perfectly viable if you didn't care about preserving the machine, which she certainly did not. Even as the bot began to snag her legs and neck, she jammed the pry bar directly into the opening left by the fallen arm, making quick work of the innards of the bot, which let her go before it had even finished tightening. Blip, upon being dropped, had scrambled immediately into the room to head for the wall panel. She had first thought to reassure the children, but Taiah was already at the barrier having a tearful reunion with the leaping,
Mention Counter
Taiah: 1 mentions
Rashi: 1 mentions

1201 to 1400
screaming, crying residents of the cage. Clearly they knew salvation was at hand, so the thing to do would be to hack the wall panel and drop the force field. As the sounds of metal on metal and angry grunts signaled Rashi pounding the robot to bits behind her, she found her way into the surprisingly low-security systems behind the panel. Perhaps they figured nobody would ever find this place. At any rate it was less than a minute before the buttons were pressed, the barrier was dispelled, and what looked like a pile of kids fell into the room and swarmed Taiah. Choruses of "you're alive!" and "we thought you were dead!" and "I can't believe it!" were shouted all round as the children laughed and yelled, jumping up and down and hugging each other, Taiah, even Rashi, a bit surprising given she was a strange adult, but, she had just been seen to beat the grabber bot to smithereens with a pry bar. Blip got curious glances but, as was common for her, it seemed the children hadn't seen a Vicham before and weren't completely sure what to make of her. She wasn't bothered by this, as it
Mention Counter
Taiah: 2 mentions
Rashi: 2 mentions

1401 to 1600
left her hands free to pull out her scanner and check the children for injuries and disease. They were clearly hungry, dehydrated, tired, and stressed, but all things considered they were in health enough for the plan concocted for the trip back. This involved a cart that they'd concealed in one of the caves and, if they couldn't make it there, a tarp to hault them on to that point. The biggest challenge was going to be the places they needed to swim through before they got out to the point the tarp would be usable, but through some miracle most of the children seemed to be adapted well for the water. Really, all but one, who looked like a Tarkee but had a pair of small wings. This child was holding tight to Taiah, who was clearly particularly ecstatic to see her. "FOGGY!" she yelled. "Mama, it's Foggy! It's her that they took away and I thought maybe she was dead, but she isn't, and she's here!" This mission was full of miracles. Blip felt it was entirely possible they'd just used up their good luck resources for their entire lives- but if so, it was worth it to
Mention Counter
Taiah: 1 mentions
Fog: 1 mentions

1601 to 1800
have found and rescued Taiah's friends without having to content with unknown criminals. Where the trip there had been silent and tense, the trip back was full of noise and life. The children had endless questions and exclamations. The wonder of their friend, presumed dead, arriving with help, and the fact that now they would be free instead of the terrible fate they'd sadly resigned themselves to, was all consuming, overwhelming, giddy, miraculous! They peppered the adults with questions they could barely even listen to the answers for before some other voice rose to say or ask something new. They kept touching each other, and Taiah, and even Rashi and Blip, as though to keep themselves reassured that these things were all real and it wasn't just some incredible fever dream. Naturally, Blip immediately doled out hard candies, urging the children to suck them slowly to restore moisture to their mouths and more importantly, so as not to choke on them. Her incessant mother hen instinct seemed to have the same effect on these children as it had on Taiah, and now they all were calling her Mama, as Taiah did. With the children so hungry and thirsty, they went
Mention Counter
Taiah: 4 mentions
Rashi: 1 mentions

1801 to 2000
through their water rations and the entire bag of sweeties before they got very far. There were more supplies hidden with the cart of course, so it wasn't too concerning, but the problem of the areas that needed swimming through reared its head before very long. These children were not as fit and strong as their rescuers, of course. Would they make the swim all right? Thankfully, their natural adaptations really saw them through. It was a slower journey out of the ocean than into it, but with Fog riding on Rashi's back where necessary they made it to their hideout cave by nightfall. Rashi broke out the soap they'd brought and everyone very gratefully washed themselves of the stench of the flooded tunnels and their burden of trash and goodness knows what else. With a portable ocean-to-drinking distiller, the children could drink their fill, and between the rest of the rations and what they managed to forage, everyone's belly was very full as little captives slept the first real sleep they had in memory, and Rashi took first watch. The night passed without event and the adults let their charges sleep until they woke, which turned out to be
Mention Counter
Rashi: 3 mentions
Fog: 1 mentions

2001 to 2169
around midday. The trek the rest of the way home was very celebratory, nearly a parade, and by the time the colony headquarters were in sight, everyone was in high spirits. Temar had been keeping watch and ran out to greet them and usher them all home, but not before signaling to his brothers, such that when they all arrived, everyone was there to greet them, and a simple hot meal had been prepared. All told, there were six of them. An aquatic tsabhua without a name, two reef belemoid who similarly had no names, and the three Tarkee- an aerial named Fog, a draconic named Burn (he had named himself), and an aquatic named Finnian (he couldn't really remember where his name came from). Clearly accustomed to being ordered about, they were surprisingly timid and well behaved for children their age in spite of their initial exuberance. Everyone was simply grateful to have gotten them safely out of that situation and into a happy beginning of something new.
Mention Counter
Finnian: 1 mentions
Burn: 1 mentions
Fog: 1 mentions
Taiah is in 9 chunks
Rashi is in 9 chunks
Finnian is in 1 chunks
Whimsy is in 0 chunks
Burn is in 1 chunks
Bisman is in 0 chunks
Fog is in 3 chunks
Dennis is in 0 chunks
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Othermoons Colony 7: Rescue part 3

In General Art ・ By Othermoons ・ 0 Favourites ・ 0 Comments

At last, the little captives are found! 


Submitted By Othermoons
Submitted 1 month ago ・ Last Updated 1 month ago
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